The universe is full of magical things, patiently waiting for our wits to grow sharper. - Eden Phillpotts

Wednesday, 7 September 2011

Giant Crocodiles

This week one of the largest crocodiles ever discovered alive was captured in the Philippines. At 6.4 metres long and over 1000kg's in weight, it puts the most well authenticated previous "largest croc" record of 6.2 m (shot in the Fly River, Papua New Guinea in 1980) in the shade. The Guinness Book Of Records states there is a 7 metre long crocodile in the IndianBhitarkanika national park, so perhaps there are even bigger monster crocodiles out there.

Sadly, as you can see in the picture above, the Filipino crocodile hasn't been treated with the respect it deserves and will now be hauled off to spend the rest of it's life in captivity. I'm hoping for a Rise of the Planet of the Crocodiles type break out in a few months time.

When a picture of Brutus, a mere 5.5m long saltwater crocodile from northern Australian, surfaced earlier this year there was a great deal of controversy over whether it was even real or not.

If you are still a Brutus denier, take a look at this video of him in action And he is a metre shorter than the crocodile captured in the Philippines! The other controversy was of course over the ethical and safety issues around humans interacting with salties... but when you get a picture like that I think there are more important things to consider such as what our future crocodilian overlords might want from us.
Then there is the infamous Gustave, a supposed man-eater (with 300 purported victims), this Nile crocodile from Burundi is 6.1m long. He's inspired a movie, and regularly taunts would-be capturers.
And there are still more huge crocodiles out there, like this rather large monster whose origins appear to be lost in the mists of an internet email fight...

But could there be even bigger one's out there? Truly gigantic monsters? There are of course reports which have been collected here and here. Given their huge lifespans it's absolutely likely there is a larger crocodile waiting to be found...

If you feel benevolent and particularly generous, this writer always appreciates things bought for him from his wishlist